Tap. Tap.
The sound of their footsteps echoed endlessly, swallowed and repeated by the long stone corridor. It had been several hours since Zheng Xie and Chu Fu had started walking, yet the hallway stretched on without end. No matter how far they went, the path refused to change, as if they were walking inside the eternity itself.
The murals on the walls remained the same, every section was identical to the last. It was as if they were trapped in a loop.
Zheng Xie's brows furrowed slightly, a faint crease marring his otherwise composed expression. He had just escaped from one loop earlier, only to find himself thrust into another.
Irritation flickered in his eyes, but beyond that, his demeanor was calm. He simply walked, each step steady, he was waiting for an opening.
Chu Fu, on the other hand, was unraveling. Unlike Zheng Xie, whose silence carried a sort of control, she could not contain the pressure of repetition and confinement.
Her wide eyes darted from wall to wall, her breath came uneven and shallow, her fingers curled into trembling fists. Every few steps, she would gulp nervously, the sound unnaturally loud in the suffocating corridor.
The loop was working its way into her spirit, gnawing at her resolve piece by piece.
Tap.
"Eeeeekkk!" The shrill cry tore from her throat as Zheng Xie, without warning, reached over and nudged her shoulder—a light push, nothing more than a playful jab.
The overreaction amused him. A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips as he turned away, ignoring her wide-eyed stare. Humming something softly under his breath, he strode forward with an air of ease.
Chu Fu could only gape, utterly baffled. 'Why would he do something so… nonsensical, so careless, at a time like this?' She wanted to lash out, to grab his robe and demand an explanation, but when she opened her mouth, no words came. Her confidence faltered.
So, she remained silent, meek. Following after him like a shadow.
But silence was not protection.
The pressure in the air began to change. Slowly, subtly, the corridor itself seemed to close in around them. The walls drew closer, the ceiling pressed lower, the stone floor beneath their feet seemed to rise.
At first, the changes were so minuscule they could have been dismissed. A centimeter here, a fraction there. But in such a narrow space, every alteration was suffocating.
Zheng Xie noticed it immediately, of course. His sharp gaze caught the shifting edges of the corridor. Chu Fu, too, felt it pressing into her bones, making the small space feel unbearable.
"We need to think of something," Zheng Xie finally said, his calm voice cutting through the silence. "Walking mindlessly will only trap us further."
"Yes…" Chu Fu replied, her tone unsteady. She glanced nervously at the walls that seemed to inch closer with every heartbeat. "Yes, I believe so too. These closing walls… they scare me a little."
The problem was glaring, there was nothing in the corridor. Just endless walls painted with the same repetitive murals. Ahead stretched the same suffocating passage. To their sides, only cold stone.
And behind them—
Zheng Xie's steps faltered. His mind stilled. A sharp realization struck him.
Behind.
Neither of them had looked behind since they entered. Chu Fu's frantic gaze had been locked on the walls and ceiling. But him? Why had he not thought to check?
He slowly turned, his body tense, his instincts screaming at him to proceed with caution.
The moment his eyes shifted toward the darkness behind them, dread surged into his veins.
It was like a tidal wave crashing through him. His entire body stiffened, sweat burst from his pores, and his hair stood on end. His pupils shrank to pinpricks. It was not fear—it was instinct. A primal, suffocating instinct telling him that what lurked there was not meant to be seen.
The corridor behind them was no longer empty.
Shadows stirred at the edges of his vision, subtle but undeniable. Figures—three of them, walked where silence should have reigned. He could not see their faces, nor even their full shapes, just their shadowy feet.
A suffocating darkness clung to them, It was as if the very laws of the world rejected their existence. Zheng Xie did not turn fully to look. His instincts howled that to do so would be a mistake.
And then the thought struck him. They had never been walking alone…
Chu Fu, sensing the subtle change in his demeanor, slightly turned her face toward him. But—
Whish—
Zheng Xie moved before she could complete the motion. His hand shot forward, firm yet controlled, grasping her shoulders and straightening her posture. His lips leaned dangerously close to her ear as he whispered, his voice low and tense.
"Don't turn your back."
There was no playfulness, no arrogance in his tone. Instead, a quiet sharpness, an unease that did not belong to a man, or rather, a demon like him. Chu Fu stiffened immediately, her pulse racing. If something could make Zheng Xie speak in such a way, then it was something she did not even wish to imagine.
So, she did the only thing she could. She nodded faintly, lips pressed together, and kept her gaze forward, obedient, unmoving.
The silence stretched. Then came the faint sound of tap—tap—tap, Zheng Xie's knuckles knocking against the stone wall as he moved along. His pace was deliberate, steady, but beneath that calm rhythm lay urgency.
At first Chu Fu furrowed her brows, unable to understand. But after several repetitions, it struck her.
'He's gauging the walls' strength…'
The realization twisted unease into full-blown fear. She had noticed earlier how restrained he was, almost reluctant to take reckless actions, as though wary of activating some hidden mechanism or ancient trap. But now… now his behavior was different. The way his shoulders hunched slightly, the way his knuckles hit faster, sharper, carried with it the scent of desperation.
And desperation in a man like Zheng Xie was a terrifying thing.
Her mind whirled, latching onto one dangerous hope. 'If something behind us could make a soul cultivator like him tremble, perhaps it isn't my death that awaits. Perhaps it's his.'
Her lips pressed tightly together. A thought took root, poisonous and tempting. 'If whatever stalks us is a threat only to him, then maybe… maybe I should let him fall to it. Shove him behind, leave him to that fate. And when the time is right, when there's a path to escape I'll survive.'
The thought made her heart pound faster. Yet she suppressed the flicker of treachery, burying it deep. For now, she remained silent, her expression the very picture of submission as she trailed him.
Zheng Xie, oblivious or perhaps entirely aware and simply dismissive continued his search. His knuckles rapped against stone after stone, wall after wall. Once… twice… thrice they circled the narrow corridor, and finally he halted.
There it was.
A faintly hollow section, weaker than the rest. His palm lingered against it for an instant, then without hesitation—
BAM!
His fist collided with stone. A spiderweb crack spread outward, fragments tumbling to the ground. Dust swirled, clinging to their robes. From the corner of his vision, Zheng Xie darted a glance behind. The shadows lingered still, motionless, waiting.
He struck again.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
Each blow reverberated, shaking the corridor, filling the air with grit and suffocating powder. Chu Fu covered her mouth with her sleeve, her heartbeat loud in her ears. Her eyes widened as cracks expanded, stone gave way, and at last, with a deafening roar, the wall collapsed.
Light.
A pale radiance seeped through the gap, flooding the suffocating darkness. What lay beyond was vast—an open cavern, illuminated by auroran hues that shimmered across the stone ceiling. Ethereal lights danced like ghostly fireflies, revealing strange, jagged rock formations that almost looked like frozen waves.
Zheng Xie exhaled faintly, brushing dust from his sleeve, and passed Chu Fu a look sharp enough to brook no argument.
"Let's go inside. There is no need to linger here."
Relief, fragile and temporary, washed over her. She nodded quickly, following after him. But just as Zheng Xie stepped through the gap—
"Ahhh!"
Chu Fu's cry split the cavern. Her body collapsed to the ground, her hand clutching her ankle. She had stumbled on loose rubble, and now tears welled in her eyes as she gasped in pain.
Zheng Xie halted, irritation flashing briefly in his eyes—only to freeze.
Behind her, the shadows stirred.
Slow, deliberate, they began to shift, their inky forms sliding closer across the ruined corridor. The air thickened with a suffocating dread.
For the briefest instant, temptation whispered to him. 'I should use her. Let them take her. See what they are. If they're harmless, good. If they're not, then she serves her purpose.'
But the feeling radiating from those shadows… no, there was nothing benevolent in them. There was no reason to check their intentions.
His jaw tightened.
With a flick of his wrist, his eyes glimmered faintly, and he invoked his technique—
[Grasp].
A spectral arm of pale, shimmering essence extended from him, swirling with fragments of soul qi. It wrapped around Chu Fu's waist and pulled, dragging her swiftly through the gap in the wall and into his arms.
The shadows froze at the threshold, as though barred by the light. They lingered there but never advanced further.
Chu Fu trembled in his hold, her tears mixing with dust. Zheng Xie spared her only a fleeting glance before his eyes returned to the darkness beyond the wall. His heartbeat remained steady, but in the depths of his gaze, a cold sharpness lingered.